Reflections of a Wandering Mind

Scents

I believe that we are all about scents. We learn to recognize people, things, food, even places, by their smell. It is true that each one of us has their own characteristic scent. It is not necessarily a perfume; it might be the smell of the shampoo in their hair, or the fragrant household soap on their clothes.

Every time I go to the house of this good friend of mine, the first thing I notice when I step into her house is its unmistakable scent. It is a mixture of slight cigarette smell and baking. It is not unpleasant neither pleasant; it is just a scent, a particular scent that belongs only to them. Even though I hate the smell of cigarette, I love that odour, maybe because of my being so fond of her and her family. I love it that when I leave her house, that scent pervades in my clothes and in my hair like a remainder of her.

Scents of food can also relate to experiences and moments. The aroma of something we eat together with its flavour fill our mouth and nose with exquisite sensations that can even dictate our mood. The smell and taste of certain food can serve as a reminder of places and situations. It can be best described as Time Regained. In ‘In Search of Lost Time’, the magnificent novel by Marcel Proust, the narrator has a flashback caused by a Madeleine cake dipped in tea followed by a feeling of great happiness as he finds out where that feeling comes from: his recollections of childhood. I had my own Proustian moment when I entered my grandparent’s house many years after my last visit. It was already uninhabited and without furniture: it was for sale. I stepped into that house and smelled the moisture and dampness; the feeling of serendipity lasted only for a second. During that brief moment, I was back in 1995. My seven-year-old- self was sitting in the kitchen, and could see my grandma going around in there. I was sitting against a wall, opposite the door leading to the garden, and beyond the door, I could clearly see my grandpa going up to the terrace to water the plants. Certainly, scents can transport us to another time and place.

Our memories are more related to scents than we are aware of. Our sense of smelling is our more primitive and animal characteristic. It is an instinct: we avoid anything that has an unpleasant smell, and likewise, we trust our guts whenever we come across anything or anybody that smells good. A good scent attracts us, tempts us, incites us to action. They are an invitation to new experiences or a recall of past ones. Yes, definetely, we are all about scents.